1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to industrial equipment connected to a network, and more specifically to the system of displaying and setting the industrial equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the industrial equipment used in the process of manufacturing producing equipment, such as a machine tool, measurement/check equipment, etc., various setting values are set directly from the industrial equipment in the processing field or through a network. And collected trend data and information indicating the operating state of the industrial equipment.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the configuration of the display setting portion of common industrial equipment.
In FIG. 1, industrial equipment 100 includes a display setting unit 200 acting as an interface with the operator who operates the equipment; a control unit 300 for setting and controlling a controlled unit 400; and the controlled unit 400 having the function of manufacturing and measuring equipment by actually performing a processing, measuring/checking operations, etc.
The display setting unit 200 includes an input/output unit 201 and an input/output control unit 202. The input/output unit 201 is a man-machine interface between an operator and the industrial equipment 100, and includes an input/output device such as a flat panel, a touch panel, etc. of liquid crystal, etc. The input/output control unit 202 is configured by a microcomputer, etc., displays a setting screen and an information display screen on the input/output unit 201 based on the firmware stored in the ROM, requests the control unit 300 to transmit data and to instruct the controlled unit 400 to make settings at an instruction of the operator issued on the display screen of the input/output unit 201 to input data.
The control unit 300 controls the controlled unit 400 by performing various settings for the controlled unit 400 at an instruction of the display setting unit 200, and returning various data of the controlled unit 400 at a request of the display setting unit 200.
FIG. 2 shows an operation in the industrial equipment 100 performed when the operator displays and outputs the information indicating the operating state of the industrial equipment 100 onto the display setting unit 200.
In FIG. 2, when the operator requests to check the operating state of the industrial equipment 100, the input/output control unit 202 issues an operation instruction on the setting screen of the input/output unit 201 for display of the information indicating the target operating state.
According to the operation of the operator, the input/output control unit 202 issues a transmission request to the control unit 300 to transmit corresponding data in a predetermined procedure. Upon receipt of the request, the control unit 300 transmits the corresponding data to the input/output control unit 202 in a predetermined procedure. Upon receipt of the data indicating the operating state, the input/output control unit 202 generates display screen data according to the received data and the data stored in the ROM of the input/output control unit 202, and displays the data on the input/output unit 201.
As described above, in the industrial equipment 100, when various settings are made and the operating state of the industrial equipment 100 is checked, the operator perform an inputting operation through the display setting unit 200 provided for each industrial equipment 100 to issue instructions for settings and display. At this time, communications of data between the input/output control unit 202 of the display setting unit 200 and a control/setting unit 301 of the control unit 300 are established by communicating specific data to the industrial equipment such as binary data, etc. in a predetermined procedure through a dedicated line 500 according to the program stored by the input/output control unit 202 and the control/setting unit 301.
The contents of settings/display and the setting/displaying screen are to be flexibly and appropriately selected depending on the using environment, the skill level of the operator, etc. Since use frequencies of the contents of the setting and the contents of the display depend on the products, etc. processed by the industrial equipment 100, it is desired that they can be easily changed to improve the convenience.
However, in the common industrial equipment 100, when the contents of settings and the contents of display change because of the variations of the specification, etc., or when the screen display and the setting items change due to the products, the using environment, etc., the programs of the display setting unit 200 and the control/setting unit 301 have to be entirely changed. Therefore, the above mentioned change cannot be easily made.
Furthermore, when the industrial equipment 100 is newly developed, and the new model has a new function or new settings not obtained by the older models, the program for displaying the setting/displaying screen is to be newly prepared from the very beginning, thereby requiring the development cost.